I am a „IBM Information Management DB2 10 Technical Professional v3“ now. That sounds a bit like the Austrian title race. What the heck is v3?
To make my life a bit more interesting I attended the DB2 10 bootcamp last week.
I have not used relational databases a lot before and I thought, that this camp could just be the thing and since I am (and a lot of you are too, I suppose) moving towards Connections, this would be a good start. Frankly, for somebody who has never seen a DB2 up close, it wasn’t easy at all. I was pretty much worn out in the end, because I had to learn a lot after and before every class. I had to go through the whole db2 certification pdf, Up and Running with DB2 on Linux, Unleashing DB2 10 for Linux, Unix and Windows, tried to inhale the DB2 SQL Reference and gave up when I saw the 2569 pages on the iPad and I tried to read every chapter of the course book in advance. Having five hours of train ride every day helped, but when 2 guys in your compartment have a heated discussion about the next popular votes, it isn’t easy to concentrate (they offered me head phones, but that does not help if you don’t have any music on the iPad). In the end I got only one of the two certifications and that one I passed with only 80%. By far the worst passing result I had in a long time.
Was in worth it? You bet. It gave me a lot of insight and from now on, I have at least a basic understanding what is going on … enough for sales 😉
The bootcamp itself was meant to be for anybody who wants to know more about DB2 10 and the only requirement was a basic understanding of relational database management systems and some Linux knowledge would be nice, too. It turned out, that a lot of knowledge about DB2 would have helped and the Linux stuff wasn’t needed. The Labs are great for beginners, but the course slides where – typical IBM – overloaded and did not give me the information I needed. No way I can read and understand them while the teacher is talking.
I am wondering what the purpose of that boot camp is. If IBM wants more DB2 certificates in the wild, the DB2 bootcamp could be improved by cutting the number of slides in half, focusing them on the information’s that help you pass the fundamentals test and distributing some 20 to 30 pages about basic technical aspects and structure of DB2 before the course, to get everybody on the same level (DB2 for Dummies?).
I am feeling quite DB2 geeky right now and hopefully I will pass the DB2 fundamentals exam next time.
Did I mention that the boot camp and the tests are free of charge? Pretty good value if you ask me.